Mobile County school employees retiring to avoid rise in health costs

MOBILE, Alabama -- Mary Miller didn’t want to retire from her job driving a school bus so soon.

But by Dec. 1, she’ll be one of dozens of local school employees resigning so they don’t see a big increase in health insurance costs.

Press-Register/Victor CalhounMobile County bus driver Mary Miller is retiring soon due to an increase in health insurance rates.

“Basically, I can’t afford to keep working,” said Miller, who drives two routes — one in Semmes and one in Prichard – every morning and afternoon.

Miller, 54, said she wanted to work for the Mobile County Public School System for at least 10 more years.

But if she did that, she’d wind up paying an estimated $600 a month for health insurance, she said, which would be too big of a chunk out of her $800 monthly pension. By retiring now, she’ll pay $273 a month.

Similar scenarios are playing out throughout Alabama, since the Legislature voted to increase the amount of money that school retirees will have to pay for health insurance.

Based on retirement papers already submitted, Mobile County is expecting a 53 percent increase in the number of employees retiring this fall, said Bryan Hack, the district’s executive director of human resources. Of the district’s approximately 8,000 employees, 151, including 56 with teaching certificates, have submitted paperwork to retire this semester.

Baldwin County public schools spokesman Terry Wilhite said that about 35 employees are retiring due to the change.

“We’re getting more retirements than we normally would because people want to protect how much they’ll earn,” Hack said. “This means schools are going to have to have a contingency plan in place for when these teachers leave.”

Some principals are interviewing possible replacements, and the district is advertising job vacancies ranging from teachers and assistant principals to bus drivers and technicians on its website. State lawmakers have said they raised the rates to help an ailing education budget that has caused schools to eliminate thousands of positions, cut programs and slash classroom spending over the last couple of years.

Critics, including representatives of the Alabama Education Association teachers union, have said it’s not right to decrease the benefits that long have made some low-paying education jobs attractive. And they point out that the legislation is flawed because the effective date is Dec. 1, in the middle of a school year.

Union representative Danny Goodwin said teachers will reluctantly leave their classrooms that day, just as students are gearing up for semester exams.

“They don’t want to leave their kids and have a sub come in and work for them, but self-preservation has to come in,” Goodwin said. “They have to pay their bills.”

Goodwin said a number of employees have called the local AEA office trying to find out how they will be effected. It’s a complicated formula, so Goodwin said he’s directing them to the Retirement System of Alabama’s website, which has a calculator.

The ones who will see the biggest increase in rates, he said, are those who started working for the schools later in life and will never be able to get in a full 25 years of employment before turning 65.

Goodwin said he fears that many employees don’t know about the increase. Retirement paperwork must be submitted to the school district by Monday to take effect before the change, he said.

“This is the difference in being able to live and have food and pay for their prescription drugs,” he said.

Miller, who has worked for the school system for 25 years, said she’ll miss leaving her house at 5:45 a.m. every weekday to take children to school on her bus. She’ll miss talking to the students. She’ll miss their hugs.

She’ll be looking for a new job.

“I feel like if I go ahead and retire,” Miller said, “I’ll actually get to see my money.